The Silver Fern

@African-Monkey said in Boxing Thread:

I had it wider, 117-111 Usyk, 116-112 was the best I could do for Fury.

Will watch again when I get a chance but yeah, time the boxing world realizes that we're witnessing an ATG in Oleksandr Usyk.

Olympic gold medalist and dominating 2 weight divisions,

Ill put my hand up and admit I knew he was a great cruiserweight but I did not expect him to dominate at heavyweight the way he has as well I thought he would go ok , but not clean it out .

He is an all time great , that is not even debatable

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

Great fight , both men warriors

Not as close as I thought.

Usyk is so awkward, relentless……

But Fury is a fucken warrior too, incredible stuff.

I wonder if there’s room for a third fight ?

Yeah he just doesn’t stop moving and working , gives you very little time to set yourself , very difficult to outpoint but I actually though fury may have got more than 4 rounds though,

The guy that beats him if it happens probably has to stop him , the judges love his workrate ,

I suspect the winner of Dubois v parker fights him now ,

Joe has a massive opportunity if he’s good enough

Great fight , both men warriors

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

Keep an eye out for 19 year old heavyweight, Moses Itauma.

Could be the future of the division

Most understated post ever.

Huge early knockout. McKean is no chump either, 22-1 record.

Will definitely watch this young fellas progress!

Yeah looks a super young talent , beautiful mover with power

Keep an eye out for 19 year old heavyweight, Moses Itauma.

Could be the future of the division

I’m finding it difficult to imagine if it goes the distance anything but a usyk victory,

But with fury he appears very motivated and if we go through his history his best performances have been when his back is to the wall , coming in so heavy intrigues me what his plan is,, I suspect he is going to fight roughhouse ,lean all over him ,throw caution to the wind and attempt to stop usyk , but it could backfire badly if he can’t catch him , gets sloppy and walks into usyk s left hand . A stoppage either way is possible for me .

But if it goes the distance, usyk .

Coming in 20 pounds heavier than fight 1 ,and heavier than he has ever been , It’s fairly obvious fury is going to attempt to dominate usyk physically use his size advantage and attempt a beat down , and he may have his moments of success , if there is a chink in usyk s armour , there is plenty of footage of him looking uncomfortable being hit to the body over the years . It has to be part of the plan you would suspect.

The issue will be, if usyk is still standing in the middle rounds , it’s from there he usually picks up the pace of the fight and goes into overdrive, and fury being so heavy might be knackered by then .

@Bovidae said in Boxing Thread:

If you didn't read the article Nyika was already on the undercard, so was in training.

Different opponent , a late switch of opponent is always difficult when all your prep work and fight plan has been geared towards a different fighter .

But in fairness you could say the same for Jai .

@African-Monkey said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

@Bovidae said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

In other news david nyika fighting jai opetaia jan 8th , for the cruiserweight title, suspect this is too soon for David and Jai will be too much for him

Nyika has stepped up to take this fight. As he says, it was too good an opportunity to turn down despite the risk.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360527430/im-ready-challenge-david-nyika-relishes-world-title-crack-gun-aussie-jai-opetaia

Translated -the money is too good to knock back . 😀

I personally think a 3 week preparation is not enough for a tough opponent like jai , it could get ugly , I suspect jai will stop him , possibly early .

In fairness, he'll learn a lot more from this fight than facing 3-4 journeymen next year. I'm glad to see guys not protecting their zero.

Saudi has saved boxing in that regard it can't be denied.

For sure , the Saudi money is the best thing to happen to boxing for a long time , great cards every few weeks , with so much money around , everyone is working together instead of protecting their own backyard

For those with a spare 10 minutes

@Bovidae said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

In other news david nyika fighting jai opetaia jan 8th , for the cruiserweight title, suspect this is too soon for David and Jai will be too much for him

Nyika has stepped up to take this fight. As he says, it was too good an opportunity to turn down despite the risk.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360527430/im-ready-challenge-david-nyika-relishes-world-title-crack-gun-aussie-jai-opetaia

Translated -the money is too good to knock back . 😀

I personally think a 3 week preparation is not enough for a tough opponent like jai , it could get ugly , I suspect jai will stop him , possibly early .

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

Fight week here , and I feel more optimistic about fury now it’s here , just like what I’m seeing and hearing from him .A 3 month lockdown camp with no contact with anyone including his wife and kids is some commitment .

In other news david nyika fighting jai opetaia jan 8th , for the cruiserweight title, suspect this is too soon for David and Jai will be too much for him

This fight has rolled around by surprise ( for me ). Haven’t really been following it at all.

But work will be finished and ( hopefully ) Xmas chores all done so cannot wait for it all to kick off.

Any idea when it is on NZ time approximately ?

Oh, and I’m picking Usyk by decision.

Usyk on points is the safe bet but if we go back through history it’s amazing how often the rematch doesn’t resemble the first fight at all , I’ve got a feeling both fighters might throw caution to the wind a bit more and while that doesn’t necessarily mean a different result , a stoppage might be on the cards .

Haven’t seen the exact times yet but the Riyadh stuff is usually early , I’d be expecting roughly a 5am start and a 9 to 10 am main fight time in aus , so add a couple of hours to nz . Give or take an hour or two either way .

Usyk has Fury’s number.

Not to mention Fury and Wilder ( especially ) just aren’t the fighters they were after smashing each other over three brutal bouts.

I haven’t felt this confident on the fern since I successfully predicted Tua would knock out Cameron in the second round

To be fair , Usyk has everyones number , he is an exceptional boxer , best footwork from any heavyweight since Ali ,

he takes them into deep water with the pace he puts on the fight with his continous workrate and movement , they find themselves in a position where the tank is empty a lot earlier than they are accustomed to ,

But I do think what a lot of people are sleeping on , before Fury got caught on the chin in the ninth round , he was actually in front on the scorecards ,and was actually hurting him with some flush uppercuts ( but i guess see point above ) but its still a rarity for Usyk to be behind on any scorecard ,

And despite that 10-8 round , the scorecards were very close ,

But the thing that bothers me most about Fury , he seems to get hit Flush more than he once did

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

Fight week here , and I feel more optimistic about fury now it’s here , just like what I’m seeing and hearing from him .A 3 month lockdown camp with no contact with anyone including his wife and kids is some commitment .

In other news david nyika fighting jai opetaia jan 8th , for the cruiserweight title, suspect this is too soon for David and Jai will be too much for him

This fight has rolled around by surprise ( for me ). Haven’t really been following it at all.

But work will be finished and ( hopefully ) Xmas chores all done so cannot wait for it all to kick off.

Any idea when it is on NZ time approximately ?

Oh, and I’m picking Usyk by decision.

Usyk on points is the safe bet but if we go back through history it’s amazing how often the rematch doesn’t resemble the first fight at all , I’ve got a feeling both fighters might throw caution to the wind a bit more and while that doesn’t necessarily mean a different result , a stoppage might be on the cards .

Haven’t seen the exact times yet but the Riyadh stuff is usually early , I’d be expecting roughly a 5am start and a 9 to 10 am main fight time in aus , so add a couple of hours to nz . Give or take an hour or two either way .

Fight week here , and I feel more optimistic about fury now it’s here , just like what I’m seeing and hearing from him .A 3 month lockdown camp with no contact with anyone including his wife and kids is some commitment .

In other news david nyika fighting jai opetaia jan 8th , for the cruiserweight title, suspect this is too soon for David and Jai will be too much for him

Going to be interesting,

I lean towards usyk , given usyk s workrate and motor I find it difficult to imagine a fury points decision in this one .

So if his chances of winning needs to be a stoppage that narrows the odds for me . But anything can happen.

Joe Parker v Dubois and bivol v bieterbiev 2 on the same card feb 22 .

@gt12 said in All Blacks 2024:

One fucking guy prepared to just say what they think. Build a show for the Beaver.

he isnt bad in the media Beaver ,

ive heard him a bit on SENz and he mixes some pretty good analysis with humor quite well , although his sidekick kirsty can be a bit annoying

If razor is looking for excuses for sub par performances , he would be better off saying we have some great young talent but they aren’t test match hardened yet .

I mean the players that left aren’t that great anyway , and we do have some young talent that isn’t necessarily inferior.

@nostrildamus said in Italy v All Blacks:

@Halfback said in Italy v All Blacks:

@BerniesCorner Does he still have the pace? Cynical me thinks he moved infield to prolong his career - fine, but he hasn't added any other weapons to him game. Opposition know all they need to do is shut him down and make their tackles, there's no through kicks or offloads coming from him.

Yeah I think you are cynical, I think he wanted 13, not simply to prolong his career. Even if he lost a little speed he'd still be rapid compared to most of our current wingers.

Jordie needs to adapt too, it's like he read journalist praise about his crash ball all those years ago and thought "Yeah that's all I'll do from now on"

Well that was what he needed to show when replacing Havili (I think) during the Foster era. And he is supposed to have a good boot. But yes either him or the tactics look very predictable.

My understanding, and I might have it a bit wrong , reiko played 13 in juniors and had a desire to return there ,

Similar to Jordie with 12 .

@MN5 said in Italy v All Blacks:

@Victor-Meldrew said in Italy v All Blacks:

@sparky said in Italy v All Blacks:

Amid the mediocrity on display in Black, Wallace Sititi has been yet again a shining light. So much to like about his game.

Been watching him around the ruck - some really intelligent stuff.

Good thing Robertson was forced to pick him.....

He’ll have to fight for his spot once Ethan is fit though

Lucky it doesn’t happen often enough to be a problem